A New Mexico Lawmaker Wants To Criminalize Post-Rape Abortions

A Republican legislator in New Mexico is seeking to force
pregnant rape victims to carry the pregnancy to term, claiming
the fetus could be used as "evidence" at trial.

Rep. Cathrynn Brown's bill
would charge a rape victim who sought an abortion with a
third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence," The Huffington
Post reported Wednesday.

"Tampering with evidence consists of destroying, changing,
hiding, placing or fabricating any physical evidence with intent
to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of any
person or to throw suspicion of the commission of a crime upon
another,"
House Bill 206 reads.

"Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating
an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an
abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual
penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the
crime," it adds.

And while the bill is unlikely to survive the Democrat-controlled
state legislature according to HuffPost, it has enraged activists
all the same.

"The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces
them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” ProgressNow
New Mexico member Pat Davis told HuffPost. “According to
Republican philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will
now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their
case.“

Brown, who brags about being endorsed by Right to
Life on her website, has yet to respond to Business Insider's
request for more information about her bill.